The auction of an impressionist collection at Christie’s in New York shows the vitality of the art market.
More than 300 million dollars, almost half in works by Van Gogh, and a peculiar painting by Caillebotte bought for a record amount by a museum: the auction of an impressionist collection at Christie’s in New York shows the vitality of the art market.
The Getty Museum in Los Angeles bought the painting Thursday night Young man at his window of the french impressionist Gustave Caillebotte for $ 53 million at auction.
This figure smashed the previous record of the French painter, which amounted to 22 million dollars.
The painting was part of the Cox Collection of impressionist art, named after the Texan businessman Ed Cox, died in 2020.
The auction also included three works by Vincent van Gogh, which totaled more than 150 million dollars, including Wooden huts among olive trees and cypress trees, sold for $ 71.3 million So what became the artist’s fourth most expensive painting up for auction, according to Christie’s.
Young man with blueberry, Created by Van Gogh shortly before his death at age 37, it was sold for $ 46.7 million.
And a record was also set for a paper job by the Dutchman, as Wheat Stacks It sold for $ 35.8 million. This work had been seized by the Nazis during World War II and disappeared from circulation, before being bought by Cox.
According to Christie’s prior to the sale, an agreement was reached between the heirs of Max Meirowsky and Alexandrine de Rothschild’s, to whom the seized work had belonged.
Exposed in 2022
In a statement, Getty Museum celebrated the success of the bidding for Caillebotte’s painting, which he described as “masterpiece of modern urban realism of the 19th century ”, and announced that it will exhibit it in 2022.
The 116×81 cm oil on canvas depicts a man in a dark suit, with his back turned, who seems to be looking through a window at a woman in the distance on a Parisian street.
“We already knew that high-quality Caillebottes were being sought (…) All that was needed was a consecration like this, in a large public sale and also with a very important museum as its destination”, reacted the CEO of Christie’s, Guillaume Cerutti.
A painting of Paul Cézanne, L’Estaque with red roofs, for 55.3 million dollars.
More than 20 pieces spanning the history of Impressionism – including works by Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot – totaled $ 332 million at auction, which took place at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.
The auction house met the public again in New York after several completely virtual sessions due to the pandemic, but in a hybrid format, in which it was possible to bid directly in the room, from rooms in London and Hong Kong, or also online.
On the same evening, Christie’s did well in a 20th century sale, in which for example a portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Andy Warhol was sold for $ 40 million.
“We know that despite the covid, the demand remained very strong. Last year we had more difficulties on the supply side because sellers wanted to wait. This year, the elements are more aligned “Cerutti explained.
The peak of this auction season is expected on Monday at Sotheby’s, with the Macklowe collection of contemporary art, considered the most expensive ever auctioned. (I)
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